Irish Soda Bread

We tried this tonight to go with our Irish boiled dinner. The bread is definitely yummy - not overly sweet but definitely belonging to the sweet bread category - but we had some problems with the recipe as it is written, so I'll give you the recipe as I found it (on www.elise.com) and also tell you where it didn't work.

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups buttermilk

Add 4 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda to a large mixing bowl and mix well. Using a pastry cutter work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then stir in raisins. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add beaten egg and buttermilk and mix until dough is too stiff to stir. Dust hands with a little flour, then gently knead dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to work with, add in some more flour. Do not overknead! Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a round loaf.

Even with the alloted amount of flour I could not get this to be anything but a gelatinous mess. I think I finally added an additional cup of flour (total 5 cups, so only 1/2 cup more than the max called for).

Transfer dough to a lightly greased baking sheet and score top of dough about 1/2'' deep in an "X" shape. Transfer to oven and bake until bread is golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped with a knife, about 35-45 minutes. Check for doneness also via toothpick method.

At 50 minutes my bread was still raw at the center - completely raw - but it was browning on the outside, so I covered it in tinfoil and cooked it an additional 20 minutes (totalling 1hr 10min) before it was ready to come out.

Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Serve bread warm, at room temperature, or toasted with butter. This we had no problem with. Yummy!